Culture

Amazing Race Canada recap: Things get frosty in the Yukon

Week 4: Looking back, the hurling of axes was probably a bad idea

(CTV)

If you strip away the cameras, the theme music, and the SUVs sponsored by Chevrolet, this week’s episode of the Amazing Race Canada looked something like this: 14 of our fellow citizens were shaken from sleep in the dead of night, waited hours for the Calgary airport to open, and then flew to Yellowknife to jump into a frozen lake wearing nothing but a swimsuit and socks.

First question: People actually auditioned for this?

Second: Does the Canadian Labour Congress know?

The seven remaining teams headed to the Northwest Territories and the Yukon in the fourth leg of the race where — just as CTV promised — things got icy. Really, how else is a day that starts at 2 a.m. with no breakfast in sight going to go?

Sisters Vanessa and Celina cut in line at the Calgary airport, enraging the other teams. Then Tim Jr. tried to cut ahead of Dave at the polar dip, but was shut down by booing spectators.

Maybe nerves were shot from the bush-plane flight. Maybe PowerBar needs to step up and sponsor next week’s episode. Either way, looking back, it was probably a bad idea to set up a challenge in the Yukon that required the contestants to hurl axes.

No one — not even squeaky clean Body Break stars Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod — were immune to the intra- and inter- team fighting this week. At the Yellowknife airport, brothers Jody and Cory accidentally signed up for the third and final flight to the Yukon, even though there was still a space left on the second flight. When Hal and Joanne arrived, they spotted the mistake and signed themselves up in the brothers’ missed spot.

“A mistake was made by another group. We capitalized on the mistake,” Hal told the cameras.

But that wasn’t the end of it. Cory, realizing his mistake, tried to guilt the Body Break duo into switching back. He reminded them that when they arrived at the airport, he had directed them to where the sign-up sheet was located.

“Are you willing to have us go where we were supposed to go?” Cory asked.

Hal and Joanne, who are clearly in this to win it, politely declined. Joanne reasoned that if she had made just a mistake, she wouldn’t expect another team to fix it for her.

There was no union rep on hand to make Cory’s case to the producers in his time of need.

The team that best co-operated was again the team that went on to cross the finish line first: this week, it was best friends Jet and Dave. 

Hippies Kristen and Darren, former frontrunners, fell behind the other teams in the Yukon but couldn’t agree on whether or not to use their express pass to skip ahead. They decided to stick it out and build a raft from raw materials to retrieve the next clue properly. But they reached the finish line last, meaning they were eliminated from the race.

It “kinda sucks” to lose but “it’s awesome here” anyway, they decided.

Then the pair headed off into the Yukon sunset musing about whether they could find a hippie van to live in. Two words for Kristen and Darren: workers’ comp.

Looking for more?

Get the Best of Maclean's sent straight to your inbox. Sign up for news, commentary and analysis.
  • By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.